1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laser scanning microscope apparatus, and more particularly, to a technique for linking height information and/or intensity images of a plurality of partitioned regions with the laser scanning microscope apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Laser scanning microscopes are known as apparatuses for measuring a three-dimensional shape in a non-contact manner.
The laser scanning microscopes two-dimensionally scan a sample to be examined with a laser light that an objective lens gathers in the state of a spot, and receive the reflected light via a confocal diaphragm arranged in a position conjugate to the focal position of the objective lens. Because only light of a focused portion is received with the confocal diaphragm, only the focused portion can be observed.
With this principle, the height of the entire surface of the sample to be examined is measured by obtaining a focal position over the entire surface of the sample to be examined while changing a relative distance Z between the objective lens and the sample to be examined.
In accordance with this measurement principle, a technique for obtaining a focal position is implemented. Therefore, an objective lens with a small focal depth, namely, with a high magnification must be used to make a measurement with high accuracy.
In this case, a range that can be measured at one time becomes narrow. Therefore, a measurement viewfield is increased while maintaining the vertical and the horizontal resolutions of the measurement by measuring some small regions into which a desired measurement region is partitioned, and by linking the measurement data of the small regions in the direction of the surface.
For example, Patent Document 1 (Patent Gazette No. 3835505) discloses a non-contact apparatus for shaping a measurement image by linking a plurality of images. According to Patent Document 1, a region is partitioned into a plurality of measurement images, shape data is calculated by using interference fringes for each of the measurement images, and the images are linked so that the shape data are best aligned.
In the meantime, there is a stylus roughness meter as an apparatus that can measure the height information of a large measurement region with relative ease.
With the stylus roughness meter, the height information of a sample to be examined is obtained by tracing the surface of the sample with a stylus while relatively moving the stylus and the sample.